Corporate Nag Needed

I set up a corporate install of IE5.01 SP1 for the 500 users in my company. The big boss has asked that all users be forced to click through a reminder of the corporate internet policy (i.e., no personal surfing) before they get to the internet. The default homepage points to the corporate intranet, but many users have figured out at least one of the several methods of bypassing that page (e.g., typing a URL into the Start / Run field).

I've looked in the IEAK (administration kit) info and everywhere else I can think of, and can't find a way to force a message at program launch, other than renaming the iexplore.exe file, co-opting the filename "iexplore.exe" and having that present a Corporate Nag message box which, upon completion, redirects the user to the new name for the IE5 application executable. That works, sort of, but it's more than a bit draconian and is likely to give us (okay, me) all sorts of headaches when it comes time to upgrade or patch the program. Any thoughts, anyone? Thanks!

Re: Corporate Nag Needed

Re: Corporate Nag Needed

No ways that I know of other than the ones you have mentioned, along with the problems that you have noted.

Other possibilites, which do not directly impact IE are:
-Send out new Windows Splash screens which include the policy. That way it would be seen whenever the systems are powered on or rebooted.
-Include something in Server Login scripts (if used).

Re: Corporate Nag Needed

I would suggest using poledit. That way you can have a logon banner with the company policy. The employees would have to agree to the policy each time they logon. By the way, this is legal if written correctly.

Re: Corporate Nag Needed

I like the idea of replacing the Windows splash screen with something that includes the policy. It may turn out to be too hard to maintain, considering how often we replace and reinstall machines, but it's a cool idea. The network logon idea is a good one, too, except that our TCP/IP connection allows users to reach the 'net without first logging in to our (Banyan Vines, or ePresence, or whatever it's called this week) network server. A colleague suggested a blend of both approaches: Flash the policy to users just ahead of the network/Windows login screen, perhaps reaching back in time to use the DOS autoexec.bat approach. Thanks for your ideas!

Re: Corporate Nag Needed

Thanks again. We all got a good belly laugh out of your last message, especially when you said, "I assume that with 500+ systems to maintain, you have some sort of automated software distribution."[img]/w3timages/icons/laugh.gif[/img]

Seriously, we may be able to incorporate the splash screen update with our current network post-login procedure.

Re: Corporate Nag Needed

Re: Corporate Nag Needed

Yes, thank you. It has an excellent chance of succeeding. I haven't yet looked into the exact filename and location on C: of the splash screen files, yet, and I'll need to make sure we can keep up with both Win95 (A and and Win98, not to mention the Win2K systems that are starting to infiltrate, but I see your point. We've used "flag files" quite a lot around here (more than I'd prefer, actually), because it is a simple and fairly reliable method of keeping track of installations and updates. I appreciate the help.